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We Should Buy From the Companies That Pay Taxes
A study of federal corporate income tax payments over five years revealed a lot about the tax avoidance skills of some of our favorite companies. Very few Fortune 500 firms came close to the maximum statutory rate of 35%. Some paid nothing at all.
The American consumer loves its soft drinks, computers, cell phones, and bank accounts. The next time you buy a can of pop be aware that Coca Cola paid a smaller percentage in federal income taxes (6.5%) than Pepsi (13.6%). In the tech industry, Hewlett-Packard (2.9%) and IBM (3.3%) both paid much less than the industry average of about 20%. While Bank of America has received most of the attention for tax avoidance, it seems more respectable next to Citigroup, which had revenues of almost $400 billion but claimed an overall 5-year loss and received a $5 billion refund.
How about the all-important industry that provides our cell phones? Of the two biggest telecommunications companies, Verizon lagged way behind, paying federal taxes at a 9% rate, compared to AT&T's 22%.
Getting gouged at the pump? Don't buy from Exxon or Chevron, which paid 3.6% and 5.6%, respectively.
In many industries companies tended to be lumped together in federal tax payment percentages, as if adapting to similar accounting protocols. Most retail stores paid between 24-32%. Tech firm came in a little lower, at 16-25%. Most food processing and fast food companies paid between 10-20%.
Any good news? The little guy in cell phones, US Cellular, paid almost 35% in federal taxes. Dr. Pepper's 31% rate far surpassed Coke and Pepsi. And enjoy your coffee at Starbucks, which paid 33%.
Detailed results for the study can be found at PayUpNow.org/rankings.
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27 Comments so far
Show AllDoes anyone have info on Citgo?
One truth I've taken away from reading Get Up, Stand Up by Bruce Levine is that demonsrating against the government is, for the most part, unproductive (yeah, we noticed) but going for the corporations is another matter altogether. The chart linked above could have many uses ---- I'd love to project it onto the sides of buildings in very public places, for instance, and for starters.
I should have mentioned Levine wasn't speaking hypothetically. You probably remember how effective, for instance, millions of us around the world were at stopping the invasion of Iraq? No, me either. He does say sometimes protests against the government work, but only if corporate interests are not at stake. Since both the energy-industrial and military-industrial complexes had something to gain from invading Iraq, we didn't have a chance of preventing that invasion.
On the other hand, he talks about City Life, which has blocked foreclosures and evictions, focusing directly on the banks, one case at a time.
I can't take any more big defeats, way too demoralizing; therefore, the chance of small successes attracts me (and in the case of City Life something like keeping five families in their homes may not solve the big problem, but it means five fewer homeless families ---- something to be said for that ---- while sending letters to my Congressional rep or taking a trip to DC for a big protest wouldn't have done those families any good at all). Also, I am positive, without a doubt, that I can rally enough people right around me to prevent an eviction, but I don't have the slightest idea how to go after the top of the pyramid.
If you, however, have a plan for going after the banks in one fell swoop, I'm listening. In the meantime, I think I'll at the very least move my credit card . . . if I can find a bank that's not quite as contemptible as others and still provide a credit card I can use at home and abroad.
you hit thr nail square on the head!! we need millions of us to decend on wallstreet(planing to stay a while if we can afford it)and shut down thees greedy leeches for good!!p,s, if we have any great hackers,lets shut down their on line money spigots!!come on folks we need to get this revelution going now,not sometime later!!!
you hit thr nail square on the head!! we need millions of us to decend on wallstreet(planing to stay a while if we can afford it)and shut down thees greedy leeches for good!!p,s, if we have any great hackers,lets shut down their on line money spigots!!come on folks we need to get this revelution going now,not sometime later!!!
Corporations that don't pay and or avoid USG taxation should not get the protections of their worldwide assets by the Pentagon protection racket scheme of;fund US, the Pentagon, for protection or else,,,,! Or else what, 9/11! Would Al Capone provide protection for those which didn't pay for it? NOT! Just as Al Capone did, the Pentagon did on 9/11, failed to protect or even were complicit in the 9/11 1 day War, to ensure budget increases for the Pentagon budget. 9/11 was a 1 day War and the defeat of the USG by 19 men, some with box cutters, will go down in the annals of history as the greatest, most humiliating military defeat ever. Since 9/11 the USG has been operating as a result of Bush's temper tantrum, a 10 year temper tantrum. Overlooked is that Bush used school children in Florida to hide behind, using school children as shields for protection.
Corporations that don't pay and or avoid USG taxation should not get the protections of their worldwide assets by the Pentagon protection racket scheme of;fund US, the Pentagon, for protection or else,,,,! Or else what, 9/11! Would Al Capone provide protection for those which didn't pay for it? NOT! Just as Al Capone did, the Pentagon did on 9/11, failed to protect or even were complicit in the 9/11 1 day War, to ensure budget increases for the Pentagon budget. 9/11 was a 1 day War and the defeat of the USG by 19 men, some with box cutters, will go down in the annals of history as the greatest, most humiliating military defeat ever. Since 9/11 the USG has been operating as a result of Bush's temper tantrum, a 10 year temper tantrum. Overlooked is that Bush used school children in Florida to hide behind, using school children as shields for protection.
Wrong. What we should be doing is limiting the profits made by these corporations in the first place. All of this hoopla about corporations not paying taxes is fighting a symptom of the disease of empire and not the root. Who do you think actually pays those taxes that we want corporations to so badly "pay up now?" That's right. We do. They will always make their profit at our expense as long as we "tax" them and allow them to gouge us every where we turn.
We should just stop buying from companies, PERIOD, when at all possible. With few exceptions, if a company is large enough that you've heard of it, it's huge, and it's evil.
Buchheit's implication that AT&T is more worthy of our money just because it pays more taxes would be risible if it weren't dangerous -- AT&T is an enemy of civil rights, especially privacy rights, and a strong supporter of the worst Rethug candidates.
Buy small whenever possible, buy local whenever possible.
Corvo makes some excellent points:
We need to greatly reduce buying anything from biggie Corporations because, generally, they are ALL evil.
We should consider UNCUT statistics, but know that many Corporations with higher tax rates are still dispicable.
Buy locally.
Generally, ALL big Corporations are evil because all have signed onto WTO free trade, and ALL have lobbied together, as a group, to force Corporate-friendly legislation and rules into being. Corporate officers are required, by law, to maximize their profits, and such is antithetical to the prosperity and well-being of We the People. Boycott ALL biggie Corporations, as much as possible. The worst-of-the-worst include Exxon/Mobil, Shell, BP, GE, Coca Cola, Citi, BofA, Chase, GoldmanSachs, Georgia Pacific, WallyWorld, McDonalds, Home Depot, Cracker Barrel, Sara Lee, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Newscorp, Verizon.
http://www.topplebush.com/boycott_rush.shtml
http://foxnewsboycott.com/fox-news-sponsors/
The article implies that we should support AT&T, Starbucks, and others who pay higher tax. Baloney. We should buy Fair Trade coffee, and there are many other reasons to boycott AT&T.
Farmers markets, green technology, and local businesses are the way to go. Buy yourselves some chickens, grow your own food, ride a bicycle, simplify.
It's good to see a Boycott article here on cd.
Hehehe! Cheers, brother!
This article is a restatement, or corollary, to the approach Buchheit recommends in a March 31, 2011 article, "Corporations at Tax Time: Who's Good, Who's Bad, and Who's Very Ugly"*
In that article, Buchheit wrote, "Home Depot, Walgreens, CVS, Kohl's, and Best Buy all approached the 35% rate three years running. Good places to shop."
At first blush, it seems sensible to advocate that citizens should support, i.e. patronize, corporations that pay their taxes-- it would be disingenuous to write "fair share" of taxes-- over corporations that don't.
But upon further scrutiny or reflection, it really is a superficial and dubious proposition.
I agree with the points raised by Corvo (11:07am) and peacemaker
(11:48am). For-profit corporations, for better or worse, are ALL rampaging, marauding, predatory monsters created by the invisible hands of Doctor Capitalism.
It's commendable that some of these monsters see fit to follow the tax laws. But it's the equivalent of plundering dragons in fables scrupling to leave a few cattle and coins behind as they carry off the rest of the livestock and village treasury to their lairs.
Thank God for small favors, as the saying goes. But it doesn't follow that target populations-- these days euphemistically called "consumers" instead of economic "captives", "hostages", "victims", or "prey"-- will achieve any profound or lasting gains by gratefully supporting marginally less predatory corporations.
Even if the "good" corporations were rewarded by a competitive edge, thus inducing the "worse" ones to more readily pony up their taxes, the net outcome is that the corporations will be as strong, or stronger, and dominant as ever. They certainly won't be "tamed" or brought to heel.
It may be a well-intended idea, but it's "feel-good"ism at best.
* http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/31-6
Heh...
1) We don't really have a choice. Monopoly rules. If the only place where you can get food in your neighborhood is Walmart, you go there or you starve. Same with everything else - electricity, telephone, Internet.
2) Even if you buy from a "tax-paying" company, you are still supporting the corporate structure. The corporations can afford to spare a few dimes to buy your confirmation of their system.
I say don't buy anything if you can help it. If you have to buy stuff, try to get domestically produced goods, and try to obtain them from small neighborhood stores.
well. I am an avid drinker of Dr. Pepper. GOOD. :)
Until the American public stops being the narcissistic, consumerist, gluttons they have been molded into by the government, business, pretend christians propaganda of mindlessness by happy talk psychobabble of sociopathic, psychopathic optimism, recited on the MSM incessantly nothing will change.
good idea, but let's not pretend this will have much of an effect.
Hate Halliburton? Boycott it!!
How?
Yup. How indeed.
Many evil Corporations are relatively immune to boycotts, especially those in the MIC (Lockheed, Rand, Blackwater (Xe), Haliburton KBR, etc.).
However, many evil Corporations are not immune. See my list above - they are all Corporations that can be boycotted by consumers. Boycotts are extremely effective, especially when the word gets out. So spread the word.
Just don't buy it. But, I know it's hard to go cold turkey and give up your Diet Coke.